Photo has outdoors experts thinking wolverine

Published 4:00 am, Friday, March 7, 2008

Photo: JEFF COPELAND

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###Live Caption:This undated photo shows a wolverine in Glacier National Park in Montana, taken by biologist Jeff Copeland. (AP Photo/Glacier National Park, Jeff Copeland, via The Missoulian) ** NO SALES **Ran on: 02-05-2006 The wolverine may not be a solitary scavenger after all, according to the latest research.###Caption History:** ADVANCE FOR THE WEEKEND, JAN. 4-5 ** This undated photo shows a wolverine in Glacier National Park in Montana, taken by biologist Jeff Copeland. (AP Photo/Glacier National Park, Jeff Copeland, via The Missoulian) ** NO SALES **Ran on: 02-05-2006
The wolverine may not be a solitary scavenger after all, according to the latest research.###Notes:###Special Instructions:ADVANCE FOR THE WEEKEND, JAN. 4-5, IMAGE PROVIDED BY JEFF COPELAND, NO SALES less

###Live Caption:This undated photo shows a wolverine in Glacier National Park in Montana, taken by biologist Jeff Copeland. (AP Photo/Glacier National Park, Jeff Copeland, via The Missoulian) ** NO SALES **Ran ... more

Photo: JEFF COPELAND

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###Live Caption:Katie Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University, captured the picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-detecting digital camera at a remote field station between Truckee and Sierraville.###Caption History:Katie Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University, captured the picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-detecting digital camera at a remote field station between Truckee and Sierraville.###Notes:###Special Instructions: less

###Live Caption:Katie Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University, captured the picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-detecting digital camera at a remote field station between Truckee and ... more

Photo: Katie Moriarty

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Wolverine. Chronicle graphic by John Blanchard

Wolverine. Chronicle graphic by John Blanchard

Photo has outdoors experts thinking wolverine

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A dark photograph of a ferocious-looking animal with an almond-colored stripe is being touted as the first documented wolverine in California in more than three-quarters of a century.

The digital picture, taken by a camera planted in the Tahoe National Forest, captured the muscular carnivore last week during a research project aimed at the wolverine's weasel family relative, the marten.

The image of the elusive creature has created a sensation among wildlife experts and ecologists, who have tried for years to get the wolverine listed as an endangered species.

The wolverine is believed by many to be extinct in California. The species has not been documented in the state since 1922, the last recorded killing of the furry animal in the Sierra Nevada. There have been a smattering of reported sightings through the years, but most were discounted as mistaken identity, Zielinski said.

Zielinski and Oregon State University graduate student Katie Moriarty had set up the heat- and motion-sensitive digital camera facing a tree where food and a scent lure were placed, in the forest about 10 miles north of Truckee.

A moment of disbelief

Moriarty, 26, was working on a master's thesis on the American marten, a slender brown weasel that likes old-growth forests. Zielinski had done a similar survey 30 years before, and the two of them, using funding from the research station, were trying to determine whether the distribution of the animals had changed through time.

"I looked at the camera memory cards on Sunday," Moriarty said. "A research assistant had removed the cards on Friday and said he could not identify one of the photos."

When she looked at the image, Moriarty said she could not believe her eyes. The image was of the rear of an animal that appeared very much to be a wolverine taken in the early morning of Feb. 28.

Moriarty is familiar with the species. Several of Moriarty's colleagues had been studying wolverines, and one had conducted an extensive but ultimately futile search for the creature in these very same forests in the early 1990s.

Studying the telltale black and brown markings of the animal in the photo, she couldn't think of anything else it could be but a wolverine.

"I jumped up and down for a while, then I looked at it, then I would get up again and then sit down and look at it again," she said. It took Moriarty 10 minutes to compose herself, and then she called Zielinski and, barely able to contain herself, told him to look at the e-mail she had just sent him.

"I was dumbfounded," Zielinski said. "I just could not believe, nor could she, what we were looking at."

Expert's opinion

"His words were something like, 'Bill, this looks like the real deal.' "

The discovery will undoubtedly spur more research. Moriarty, Zielinski and Forest Service scientists are planning a major hunt in the area for genetic material, including wolverine scat and hair samples. More cameras are likely to be set up, along with "hair snares," which capture animal hair for DNA analysis.

Researchers are expected to consider more seriously the half-dozen or so reported sightings during the past two decades.

"Every few years there seems to be a bona fide observation, many of which were discredited because they could have been a badger, young black bear or marten," Zielinski said. "If this is a wolverine, we're going to take those sightings more seriously."

The North American wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family, with adults weighing as much as 45 pounds. Stocky and muscular, it has a bushy tail and broad head that reminds people of a small bear.

Remarkably strong, with powerful jaws, wolverines have been known to kill prey as large as a moose, but in North America they are mostly scavengers, sometimes defending scavenged meat against larger animals. Loners, they stake out territory and try to stay out of each other's way. Individual wolverines can range as far as 240 square miles, eating insects, berries, small animals, birds and carrion.

They are more common in the north-central United States, including Minnesota, Michigan and North Dakota, and also can be found in Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

Adult wolverines have no natural predators except humans, who have historically hunted and killed them in large numbers for their fur.

Zielinski said the wolverine in the photograph could have migrated from somewhere north like the Rockies or the Cascade Range in Washington, where wolverines are also known to exist. Another possibility is that it is part of a small group of native wolverines that evaded detection for the better part of a century.

The third possibility, Zielinski said, is that it was an escaped pet, a fugitive from some captive group or planted by a person or group.

"Anything's possible, depending on people's motivations," Zielinski said. "That's why we have to entertain that third possibility."

The discovery of a wolverine in the Sierra could have major land-use implications if the species is ever declared an endangered species, a step that is under consideration by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

For Moriarty, it has already been a life-changing experience.

"It's extremely overwhelming, but I'm still making my thesis my priority," she said. "I'm not getting deterred too much, but this is an amazing discovery. I look at the picture every day in amazement."

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